Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2014
Let $\mathfrak{g}=\mbox{Lie}(G)$ be the Lie algebra of a simple algebraic group
$G$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic
$0$. Let
$e$ be a nilpotent element of
$\mathfrak{g}$ and let
$\mathfrak{g}_e=\mbox{Lie}(G_e)$ where
$G_e$ stands for the stabiliser of
$e$ in
$G$. For
$\mathfrak{g}$ classical, we give an explicit combinatorial formula for the codimension of
$[\mathfrak{g}_e,\mathfrak{g}_e]$ in
$\mathfrak{g}_e$ and use it to determine those
$e\in \mathfrak{g}$ for which the largest commutative quotient
$U(\mathfrak{g},e)^{\mbox{ab}}$ of the finite
$W$-algebra
$U(\mathfrak{g},e)$ is isomorphic to a polynomial algebra. It turns out that this happens if and only if
$e$ lies in a unique sheet of
$\mathfrak{g}$. The nilpotent elements with this property are called non-singular in the paper. Confirming a recent conjecture of Izosimov, we prove that a nilpotent element
$e\in \mathfrak{g}$ is non-singular if and only if the maximal dimension of the geometric quotients
$\mathcal{S}/G$, where
$\mathcal{S}$ is a sheet of
$\mathfrak{g}$ containing
$e$, coincides with the codimension of
$[\mathfrak{g}_e,\mathfrak{g}_e]$ in
$\mathfrak{g}_e$ and describe all non-singular nilpotent elements in terms of partitions. We also show that for any nilpotent element
$e$ in a classical Lie algebra
$\mathfrak{g}$ the closed subset of Specm
$U(\mathfrak{g},e)^{\mbox{ab}}$ consisting of all points fixed by the natural action of the component group of
$G_e$ is isomorphic to an affine space. Analogues of these results for exceptional Lie algebras are also obtained and applications to the theory of primitive ideals are given.